Xu Yuan didn’t believe it was just a coincidence.

However, since he had already encountered it, and they were now standing on opposite sides, a confrontation was inevitable.

As Herobrine, Xu Yuan had full confidence that he could defeat Steve.

After collecting his thoughts, Xu Yuan glanced at the fading corpses of the players around him. This was his first time killing players, and he had just reaped three kill points.

But there was something strange—the kill points each of the three players provided were different.

Xu Yuan was still puzzled when the system’s voice rang out in his mind.

[The more monsters a player kills, the more kill points they provide.]

[After killing a player, their accumulated kill points will reset to zero.]

Hearing this, Xu Yuan finally understood.

“So that’s it. Fatten them up before the slaughter.”

Although resetting a player’s kill points after just one kill was a bit unfavorable for Xu Yuan, he knew he couldn’t drain one sheep dry. If the points didn’t reset, he could easily imprison a high-value player and kill them hundreds of times a day, earning points effortlessly.

Having roughly understood how to acquire kill points, Xu Yuan found an empty spot, dug three blocks down, and filled the top with dirt to recover his health underground.

He had been lucky earlier. When Steve saw him, instead of attacking, he had bolted immediately. If Steve had been a bit more reckless and attacked before Xu Yuan could react, he likely would’ve been done for.

After all, using the explosion skill had left Xu Yuan on the brink of death. Whether it was a monster or a player, the situation was incredibly dangerous.

It was better to be cautious.

Thankfully, Xu Yuan, appearing as a monster, didn’t have a hunger bar to worry about. Health regeneration wasn’t limited, and soon enough, his health bar was steadily rising.

Because his health pool was small, it wasn’t long before he was fully healed.

Xu Yuan paused to think.

“I should blow up some stone to build a mob farm and wait for daylight to secure the first kill of some monsters.”

The earlier encounter had made Xu Yuan more cautious. Without sufficient strength, he couldn’t afford to take unnecessary risks. Life was precious, and luck wouldn’t always be on his side.

Building a mob farm required a large amount of stone and some iron ingots. With the explosion skill, gathering stone was easy—just a few blasts, and he could collect several stacks.

For now, Xu Yuan didn’t have enough intimidation points to unlock the monster compendium, so it was better to avoid caves at night and work underground. Otherwise, if he got too absorbed in blowing up stone and another Creeper ambushed him, it could be game over.

With that in mind, Xu Yuan got to work.

—

Meanwhile, on the other side of the plains, Steve was sprinting for his life, gasping for breath.

He kept glancing over his shoulder, checking behind him. After several looks to ensure nothing was following him, he finally stopped and exhaled in relief. He quickly pulled out a stone shovel and dug down three blocks, sealing the top with dirt before letting out a long sigh.

“What was that…”

Before he could catch his breath, a series of “ding ding” sounds from his friend messages startled him, causing him to shudder. He took a moment to calm down before cautiously opening the messages.

“???????”

“What just happened?!!”

“Damn it, how did I die in the middle of chatting?!!”

“Anyone know what the hell happened?”

…

Seeing his friends’ frantic messages, Steve took a deep breath and replied:

“You guys were probably blown up.”

His reply left the others confused.

“Huh? Blown up? A Creeper?”

“That can’t be right. Why would a Creeper explode out of nowhere? Did a zombie and a Creeper fight and accidentally hit you?”

“What the hell? And you survived it?”

Everyone immediately thought of a Creeper when Steve mentioned an explosion. After all, the Creeper was the only mob they’d encountered so far in the game that could blow up.

Steve shook his head and typed back.

“It wasn’t a Creeper…”

“It was… something that looked a lot like me… a monster…”

“I don’t know what it was!”

“Its eyes… they glowed, like a light source…”

…

As Steve replayed the scene in his mind, he shuddered. He couldn’t shake the eerie feeling of how that “monster” looked just like him. He had spent hours crafting his character’s face when creating it. Sure, it wasn’t impossible for another player to have a similar design, but this wasn’t a player.

This was a monster—one that looked exactly like his character!

The odds of such a thing happening were unbelievably small. Unless, of course, it was a new monster model added to the game.

But Steve quickly dismissed that idea.

MC, developed by the gaming giant Zero Point over the course of ten years, had only been in open beta for a week. There was no way this “monster” could’ve been something newly added.

Moreover, what was even more bizarre was that this monster didn’t have a name tag!

Every monster they had encountered so far—zombies, Creepers, skeleton archers—had a name hovering above their heads. But this monster, the one that looked just like him, had nothing.

That’s why Steve was so uncertain when describing what he saw. He had no idea what he had encountered.

—

Steve’s friends were stunned by his description.

“Huh? It wasn’t a Creeper?”

“Wait, you’re saying that the monster looked just like you??”

“Bro, are you sure you weren’t seeing things?”

“Glowing eyes? Could we have stumbled upon some hidden boss?!”

…

Steve could tell from their replies that none of his friends grasped the seriousness of the situation.

“I wasn’t seeing things, and I didn’t make a mistake.”

“I spent days perfecting my character’s face. I’d know it anywhere.”

“And I don’t think it was a boss…”

“He wasn’t just some ordinary monster! I think… he has a mind of his own.”

At first, Steve had considered the possibility that what he encountered was just a boss monster. Maybe it looked like him by coincidence. Perhaps because it was a boss, it didn’t have a name tag.

But when he remembered the way that “monster” looked at him, Steve immediately dismissed that thought.

Those eyes, though empty, felt alive!

When that “monster” looked at him, it wasn’t acting on a pre-set string of code—it was thinking!

Steve was so sure of this because if it had been just a regular boss or monster, it would have acted immediately once Steve was within its detection range, moving in for an attack. But this “monster” didn’t.

It first looked around the surroundings, then fixed its gaze on Steve and began thinking.

It was only because of that pause that Steve had the chance to escape.

And that was what made Steve’s skin crawl.

Imagine playing a fully immersive game, and suddenly a monster that looks just like you appears. It has no name tag, it’s deadly, it wiped out your entire team—and yet, instead of attacking you, it just stares at you with those glowing, terrifying eyes.

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep